Posts Tagged ‘Free Trade’

On late Friday evening, President Obama made the first major trade decision of his Administration. He decided to impose a 35% tax hike on imported tyres from China. In doing so, he not only hurt American families, already struggling with the high cost of transportation, our troubled auto industry, which relies on imports to stay competitive, but also has sparked a major international trade war. Already China announced dumping and subsidy probes of chicken and auto products from the U.S. Most expect this dispute to escalate even further with the potential of a fully fledged job-destroying trade war.

Make no mistake – there is near unanimous consensus that tarriffs like this are bad policy. A near-unanimous 93% of economists – from all accross the political spectrum – believe “tarrifs reduce economic welfare”. It is interesting to note that the Chinese government responded by stating “China has always steadfastly opposed trade protectionism,” and that China was “willing to continue acting in concert with other nations to promote a global economic recovery as soon as possible.” When China starts attacking you for deviating from free market policies, you really need to start thinking…

At a time where the specter of economic protectionism is once again rearing its ugly head, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, in partnership with the International Policy Network, is launching a major international campaign in support of free trade. This is to be unveiled on April 1 before the G20 summit.

As part of it, a petition has been launched to extol the virtues of free trade in ensuring prosperity and peace. I strongly urge everyone to follow the link to read more about the program, and to sign the petition. In particular, please forward this on to as many politicians, economists and scholars as possible.